No homicides in Kalamazoo in first half of 2008

KALAMAZOO -- By this time last year, five people, including a 14-year-old boy, had been slain on the city's streets.

The homicide tally so far for 2008?

Zero.

Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety officials say an increased focus on community policing, work with youth by local churches and non-profit organizations, and a little luck have helped curtail a wave of violence that resulted in Kalamazoo recording double-digit homicides last year for the first time since 1991.

"We've stepped up community policing, and we've got more officers on the street corner contacting people in non-traditional ways," Department of Public Safety interim Assistant Chief Pat Wright said. "I think, certainly, that the officer on the street can take credit for some of this -- crime being down."

Among the 11 people slain in the city last year were five teenagers, ranging in age from 14 to 19. Four of the teens died by gunfire, and another was stabbed to death. And last year included a one-month stretch from August to September during which three people were killed in the city.

Police in Kalamazoo Township and Portage also investigated one homicide each in 2007 to bring the county's total number of slayings to 13, the highest tally since 2000, when there were 17 homicides.

This year the number of homicides countywide, as in the city, is zero.

Wright, who was appointed interim assistant chief last week by new Public Safety Chief Jeffrey Hadley, said the rash of teen killings last year was alarming to police and the community, and Public Safety plans to continue its focus on community policing and youth-violence prevention throughout the rest of the year in hopes of sustaining the absence of homicides.

"(The teen killings) really sparked something between us and the faith-based community and the non-profits," Wright said. "A lot more people got involved. I think there's a concerted effort between everybody to stop some of this, and our part is getting out and dispersing crowds before we get to that point."